Global Cities

Ken Drexel Q. Cadano

London
Paris
Tokyo
Definitions (Saskia Sassen, 1991)
• Key locations for finance and specialized service firms, which have
replaced manufacturing as the leading economic services;
• Sites of production, including the production of innovations, in
leading industries;
• Highly concentrated command points in the organization of the world
economy;
• Markets for the products and innovations produced.
Globalization is
Spatial
• Globalization is spatial because it
occurs in physical spaces
• Globalization is spatial because
what makes it move is the fact
that it is based in places.
Indicators for Globality

• Economic power
• Economic opportunities
• Economic competition
• Center of Authority
• Political influence
• Center of higher learning and
culture
Economic Power
• Determines which cities are global.
Economic
Opportunities
• Make it attractive to talents across the world.
Economic Competitiveness
• Criteria in market size, purchasing power of citizens, size of the middle class and potential growth.
Center of Authority
State power
Political Influence

• Powerful political hubs exert

influence on their own countries
as well on international affairs.
• Example: Jakarta, Indonesia the
main headquarters of Association
of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
Centers of High Learning and Culture
• A city’s intellectual influence.
Challengers of Global
Cities
Sites if great inequality and poverty.
Challenges:

• Environmental degradation.
Challenges:
• Major cities can be sites of major terror attacks.